BAPTISM
- WHY BAPTISM?
- Baptism is God’s gift to you. Read Matthew 28:19. The phrase “in the name of ” means that through baptism you “belong to” the three-in-one God: Father, Son, and (1)____ _______.
- The early Christians practiced baptism. Read Acts 2:37-38. What two promises can you be sure you have because of baptism? (2)_________ and (3)_________.
B. BENEFITS OF BAPTISM. For each question, select a word from the list below and put its letter in the blank in front of the question number.
WORD LIST: a. new life b. fight sin c. with Jesus d. saved e. forgiveness f. family of God
__ 1. Read Mark 16:16. Because you believe and are baptized, you know you are (4)__________.
__ 2. Read Acts 22:16. Because of Baptism, you know your (5)_______ have been taken care of.
__ 3. Read Titus 3:4-5. This verse talks about a washing of (6)_______________. This means you have new life. Your “old” life is from your parents. They gave you special qualities, like the color of your eyes, and the length of your life. Your new life is from God. He gives you special qualities, qualities that are like Jesus. For example, your new life finds it natural to love and forgive. Your “new” life has no time limit: after you die, you will be with (7)__________ forever.
__ 4. Read Galatians 3:26-27. You can know you are united to Jesus because of two things:(8)______ and (9)_____. Since your good or bad behavior cannot change the reality of your relationship with God, therefore, when you sin, do not doubt that God will forgive. You need not delay in coming to Him.
__ 5. Read Ephesians 1:5. It is only through (whom) (10)_______ that we become God’s children. Jesus is God’s Son, so because we are united to Jesus, we know for sure that we are children of (11)______, members of God’s family. In your human family, no matter whether you forget to think about your parents, or even argue with them, you can never change the fact that you are still their child. In the same way, through faith and Baptism you know that your relationship with (12)_______ will never change, even if you sometimes don’t think about God or even don’t obey Him.
__ 6. Read Romans 6:1-3. How much sin can a dead person do? (13)_______. What sacrament is mentioned here to teach us about fighting sin? (14)________. Read Romans 6:6. Because you are baptized, your “(15)____ ____” is killed, and you are no longer a slave to (16)___________. Therefore, does it make sense to give in when your “old self” tries to get you to sin? (17)_________.
Read Romans 6:11. When your “old self” wants you to sin, you can refuse to listen to it, since you regard it as (18)___________ because of Baptism. Read Romans 6:4. Jesus rose from the dead. In Baptism, that applies to me, so I know I have new (19)_________.
C. LIFE AFTER BAPTISM.
Even after we are baptized, we may sometimes doubt whether God loves us. We may sometimes wonder whether our faith is strong enough. We may sometimes think that we have lost our relationship to God because of something bad we’ve done. At these times, we can look to Jesus. God proved His love by sending Jesus. Jesus died and rose to bring us to God. The Holy Spirit brought us into this relationship with God. He did this as Jesus’ love came to us personally in the words of the Gospel and the action of Baptism. We can depend on Jesus and His promises. The promises to us that believe and are baptized are as sure as the reality of Jesus’ death and resurrection. These promises do not change just because our feelings go up and down. These promises do not depend on how strong our faith is, but on how dependable Jesus is. If we do something wrong and then confess and repent, we know that God will forgive our sin, because He has already accepted us as members of His family. When our old life makes us want to sin, we can draw on God’s power to live our new life each day. We never say, “Because I believed and was baptized in the past, therefore I have no need to rely on God today”. Rather, our Baptism shows its effect on us each day through our trusting and relying on Jesus.
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